The 2017 Global Social Venture Competition (GSVC) kicked off in December, and globally we received an incredibly diverse pool of applications — close to 600 entries from 64 countries around the world! Teams made up of both graduate and undergraduate students applied with business solutions for some of the world’s most pressing social challenges related to education, food, technology, and the environment, among many others. A select number of teams have moved forward to compete in Regional Finals this February and March in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This year’s Global Finalists, who will compete for $80,000 in cash prizes, will be announced in early March.

The team at Berkeley-Haas is also excited to announce that this year’s Global Finals will culminate in UC Berkeley’s first annual Future of Social Ventures conferencefeaturing speakers and sessions from experts in the field of social impact and presentations from the GSVC Global Finalist teams. Our morning keynote will be a fireside chat on Omnipreneurship with His Excellency Amr Al Dabbagh, Chairman and CEO of the Al-Dabbagh Group and Founding Chairman of the Stars Foundation and Philanthropy University, and Professor Laura Tyson, Director of the Berkeley-Haas Institute for Business and Social Impact. More details will be announced in the coming weeks, but save the date: Friday, April 7 at UC Berkeley.